In Frankfurt I’m staying at the Sofitel Opera, which gets its name from the Alte Oper, which is the grand and imposing building on the other side of the street.

Location

Getting to the Sofitel from Frankfurt Airport is not as easy as one might think. My initial plan is to take public transport. For that, I’ll first need to get to Terminal 1. Only, the shuttle train to Terminal 1 does not appear to be running, so I’ll have to take the complimentary bus, which should take eight minutes. And eventually I even manage to get on the third bus, after there was no room on the first and second one. At Terminal 1 I go down into the railway station to catch an S8 or S9 train to Frankfurt Taunusanlage, from where it’s only seven minutes on foot to the hotel. I schlepp my suitcase down to the platform, the escalators are kaputt, only to find out that there’s a delay on the line and there won’t be train for another fifty minutes… You know what, Frankfurt Airport and Deutsche Bahn, you can 😘 my 🍑 for all I care. I‘ll take a taxi.

Check-in & Staff

Before I’m even out of the taxi, the bellman has already taken my suitcase out of the boot and asks me to follow him to reception. The lobby has that typical Sofitel smell. One of the receptionists attends to me straight away. She informs me that I’ve been upgraded to a Prestige Suite on the third floor, which has a view overlooking the park in front of the hotel.

Prestige Suite

My room is located at the far end of a long corridor, away from the lifts. Perhaps that helps to explain why the room is so remarkably quiet.

The door opens into a spacious foyer. Straight up ahead is the living room. Just off to the left is the guest toilet.

The living room is a good size and features a large, comfortable sofa that’s just perfect for a short power nap. Up by the windows is a good size desk.

Around the corner from the foyer is the bathroom, which is enormous. It features a large bath in the centre of the room, and a wash basin on either side. There’s also a spacious walk-in shower.

And that, of course, brings us to the Knight of Malta shower test. And again, it’s a mixed review. There is no spillage at all. The door to the shower closes firmly to prevent that. However, there are deductions for the temperature control and for the pressure. It’s okay if you’re using the handheld shower head. However, the fixed rainforest shower head is not so good – the pressure is weak and the individual jets of water go all over the place, just not on the person standing under the shower head.

But at least the cosmetics in the bathroom are by Diptyque. They smell lovely and have a nice, clean floral scent.

Just like the rest of the suite, the bedroom is large and features an exceptionally comfortable and very large king double. The linen feels nice and crispy as I slip between the sheets. It’s a very nice bed. The view from the bed- and living room overlooks a quiet little park just out front.

Amenities

The amenities are quite generous. The lady at reception informs me that the drinks in the minibar are complimentary. There’s also a Nespresso machine and a water kettle. Fresh regular milk and oat milk are available in the fridge.

There are all sorts of goodies waiting for me on the coffee table: a chilled bottle of champagne, a box of Frankfurter macarons and a sweet “thing” that looks like an apple and contains Grüne Sosse, which is a local thing and, frankly, doesn’t really sound all that appealing.

Dining

I only have breakfast at the hotel, which is served at the restaurant on the ground floor at the back of the hotel, overlooking the old opera house. The buffet offers a continental breakfast selection only. Having said that, it’s a fairly good selection with a nice variety of bread, rolls, cheese, crudités, and antipasti. Additional hot items can be ordered directly with the waiting staff at no extra charge.

Conclusion

This was a very pleasant stay. Typical Sofitel at its finest. The room was spacious and comfortable, and the size of the bathroom was quite impressive. Other than that, this was my very first visit ever to Frankfurt, and I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised. I return to Basel by train, which is just three hours away by ICE. And this time we were even on time…!